Sunday: Spreading the mess to YouTube

This morning, I checked my youtube subscriptions for new videos and this ad popped up on one of them:

I can only hope that the less politically savvy viewers figure out that:

1.) If there are only 2 trillion barrels of oil available in the US and we’ve used a trillion just in the last century alone, the trillion that’s left isn’t going to last very long.

2.) Just because wages have been lost, that’s not necessarily the result of a moratorium on exploring for new sources.  The authors of this ad should show a connection.  Just saying there is one isn’t a very good answer.  You wouldn’t accept this level of proof from your teenagers.  If, on the other hand, those wages have been lost from oil rig workers in the Gulf and the politicians answerable to the workers in their states blocked stimulus money or money dedicated to energy research or grants to retrain those workers (to install solar panels, for example), then those politicians should face their voters and explain themselves.

3.) Obama is responsible for a lot of things but in this case, any politician who doesn’t find a quick solution for the diminishing amount of oil in the entire world is not doing his or her job regardless of party affiliation.

I also bothered to look up who was behind this Stop the Energy Freeze campaign.  It’s the Institute for Energy Research and it seems to be particularly concerned with oil that is currently off limits in the Gulf of Mexico, for some strange reason.  Maybe that’s because they’re based in Houston?  Or maybe it’s because it’s because it’s been touted by Rush Limbaugh who hasn’t met a resource (natural or human) that he hasn’t considered exploitable?

Ahhh, this little tidbit is interesting.  The co-founder and CEO of The Institute for Energy Research is some dude named Robert L. Bradley.  And HE used to work for Enron and Kenneth Lay.  You know, the Smartest Guys in the Room?  The ones whose traders used to yuck it up about how they were going to f$^& over some Granny in California by manipulating the energy market?  The company that made all of its employees invest in Enron stock in their 401Ks and then locked them out of their accounts when the price plummeted so that they lost EVERYTHING?  Yeah, that Enron.  Bradley was the PR guy.  He’s also an adjunct “scholar” of the Cato Institute.  How charming.  Is that where he learned to deceive unsuspecting youtube viewers?  Is the liberty to make the end really justify the means ensconced in the Constitution somewhere?  Are we free to pull the wool over citizen’s eyes with bullshit?  I guess it’s the responsibility of every rugged individualist to be on his guard.

Enron, has it really been 10 years?

I hate to see Google participating in evil by allowing entities like this one from blatantly lying and misleading viewers and planting even more craziness in the heads of the unsuspecting.  So, if you’re out there, Jeff Jarvis, why don’t you ask Google if they have a policy about false and misleading advertising?  I’m not aware of any mechanism that will allow me to shut off ads like this.  There should be a toggle switch for political/policy ads.  Being bombarded with Old Spice ads is one thing.  This is quite a different and dangerous thing.  At the very least, Google should be requiring a lot more disclaimer and maybe even a warning saying “this ad is produced by a policy advocacy firm the purpose of which is to persuade the viewer.  Not all information presented here may be factual or accurate. Viewer discretion is advised.” and then followed by links to rebuttal ads.

Otherwise, it’s like being a party to evil, or renting out your beach house to a bunch of frat boys where evil is done.

Disclaimer: I favor alternatives to oil and coal energy including wind, wave, solar and *nuclear* energy, provided the regulatory agencies that monitor these things are technologically modern and rigorous.